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1/13/2002 8:10:02 PM, Paul T <pault12@pacbell.net> wrote:
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Jens Jakob Andersen, PDI"
<jens.jakob.andersen@post.dk>
>
>
>Sure. And it is kinda more convinient to use CSV, because
>CSV-based world has developed a sophisticated, convinient,
>universal binding mechanizm, called "regular expressions".
Hmmm, that's an interesting way to put it. What would an XML
universal binding mechanism look like .... a clean
integration of XPath and DOM (and maybe RELAX-NG)? A RELAX-
NG data binding tool
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~dp8t-asm/java/tools/Relaxer/ ?
Both Sun and Microsoft seem to be working hard to make it
easier to use XML from ordinary programming languages; are
either/both at least moving in the direction you want to see?
>Regular expressions are not blessed by W3C, sure.
But they are at the heart of RELAX-NG ... I hope we can
distinguish "XML" from "the set of all specs that the W3C has
put out dealing with XML" or "the picture of XML promulgated
by the most visionary W3C working groups."
>Or try rendering a real-life financial XML report
>with XSL ( it may take a 100 of pages,
>you know... )
Good point; this is very definitely a weakness of the current
crop of XML technologies in the Real World. Crystal Reports
and their competitors are just starting to handle XML data
sources, AFAIK. Can anyone point us to a report generator
rich enough to, for example, generate a real-life financial
report from an XBRL document and that can be used by someone
who knows little about XBRL other than the tag/element names
and hierarchy and nothing at all about XSL/XSLT? In other
words, something that required the user to know no more about
XML than the current report generators assume about SQL
knowledge?
BTW, I recently surveyed the following, and IMHO none of them
come close to fitting these requirements (although there is
some XML support now and some pretty rapid progress) :
http://www.crystaldecisions.com
http://www.actuate.com
http://www.elixirtech.com/ElixirReport
http://www.brio.com/products/brio_reports
http://www.jinfonet.com/
So, JJ, would a hypothetical "Crystal Reports for XML" that
abstracted away the messier details of XPath, XQuery, and XSL
(FO and/or XSLT) behind a decent UI help your friends
significantly?
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